Jamie Cullum

Biography from VH1.com

At 24, Jamie Cullum might seem a little wet behind the ears to be revitalizing contemporary jazz. On the contrary. It is precisely because of his youth that the scruffy, self-taught British pianist/singer/songwriter can produce music to which both seasoned jazz fans and young pop aficionados have responded enthusiastically; Twentysomething, his major label debut, has made Jamie a star - setting records as the fastest-selling jazz debut in UK history, where it was certified Platinum in just six weeks.

On Twentysomething, Jamie celebrates jazz and and retrofits standards to accommodate elements of the music he grew up with, from rock to rap to drum & bass. Just as gracefully, he recasts the works of contemporary luminaries like Radiohead and Jeff Buckley with a harmonic vocabulary he learned picking through old Gershwin tunes. But this young upstart has drawn raves as more than just an interpreter with a slate of originals, both by Jamie and his older brother, Ben, that draw upon, and reflect, the experiences of his own generation...[more]

Discography

Pointless Nostalgic [cover photo]

Release date: 07.29.03

Label: Candid Records

01. You and the Night and the Music

02. I Can't Get Started

03. Devil May Care

04. You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You

05. Pointless Nostalgic

06. In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning

07. Well You Needn't

08. It Ain't Necessarily So

09. High and Dry

10. Too Close for Comfort

11. A Time for Love

12. Lookin' Good

13. I Want to Be a Popstar

Twentysomething [cover photo]

Release date: 05.11.04

Label: Verve

01. These Are the Days

02. Twentysomething

03. Wind Cries Mary

04. All at Sea

05. Lover, You Should've Come Over

06. Singin' in the Rain

07. I Get a Kick Out of You

08. Blame It on My Youth

09. High and Dry

10. It's About Time

11. But for Now

12. I Could Have Danced All Night

13. Next Year, Baby

14. What a Diff'rence a Day Made

15. Frontin'

Photographs

With Joss Stone and the singer of Keane from VH1 Inside Tracks Concert

Performing at VH1 Inside Tracks Concert

Performing at VH1 Inside Tracks Concert

Websites

Official

Jamie Cullum - Official Artist Page

Verve Music Group - Label Site

Unofficial

Jamie Cullum - Fan Site

Jamie Cullum Fan - Fanlisting

Interview

Jamie Cullum: Anything Goes

British phenom is both jazz and pop. He explains five of the key covers on his new Twentysomething.

Jamie Cullum is being heralded as one of jazz's key youngsters. But the British pianist, who tackles Radiohead and Jeff Buckley with as much ease as he does Cole Porter and Lerner/Loewe, isn't exactly steeped in the music's history.

"I didn't grow up listening to jazz," says the 22-year-old. "Kurt Cobain was one of the first people that I really idolized. My first band had three guitars, two drummers and a guy with a Casio keyboard. How downtown New York is that?"

As a teen, Cullum attended raves and emulated Nirvana. Listening to hip-hop clued him in on jazz, and his love of Ben Folds drew him to the piano. When he left university, his pizza restaurant gigs started attracting a big buzz. Suddenly, his album Twentysomething had sold over a million copies, and his version of Pharrell Williams' "Frontin'" was getting mad props from the Neptunes star himself.

"I think our generation is used to hearing a lot of things brought to the table," Cullum says of his wide-ranging tastes. "Like a DJ Shadow record, where he's sampling everything from Gustav Mahler to Kraftwerk to the Velvet Underground. It's all being [presented] by someone I respect, so it must all be cool!"

Twentysomething is indeed a glorious mishmash. "I Could Have Danced All Night" is funked up. "Singin' in the Rain" becomes a quiet storm jam, and Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary" gets sent to New Orleans. His swinging originals, with their lively word play, hold up well, too. Cullum's mulling over tackling PJ Harvey and Bjork for his next record, but in the meantime, he took VH1 on a tour of five cover tunes that make Twentysomething tick....[more]

Cullum the next big thing in jazz

Brit singer climbing the charts

TORONTO -- He has outsold Pink, The Strokes and Radiohead to name just a few. He's played for England's royal family and met music's royalty Elton John and Quincy Jones.

Teenagers from rural Wiltshire are not typically meant to be into jazz that is unless you are Jamie Cullum.

In the U.K. this 23-year-old is the David Beckham of jazz or Frank Sinatra in sneakers. So you get the idea. The ladies really fancy him...they love him.

In England it all happened quickly and manically -- a big TV show and suddenly the album was in the top ten over here in Canada and the U.S. It has steadily gone up the charts and the gigs are getting bigger.

If you have been lucky enough to have discovered Cullum's sound you can understand why Universal/Verve signed him to a one million dollar deal. This is the biggest recording contract "ever" for a British jazz singer. For the record, when Jamie started out he wanted to be the next Kurt Cobain but fell hard for jazz.

"I like to hear everything,

EXPERIENCE JAMIE CULLUM LIVE WITH NEW DVD ON NOVEMBER 16TH

Enhanced dual-disc version of 'twentysomething' also to be released

On Tuesday, November 16, 2004, young jazz/pop sensation Jamie Cullum will release his first ever DVD, Live at Blenheim Palace (Verve/Universal). The deluxe package includes Cullum's 90-minute concert performance in front of 10,000 fans at the stunning British landmark, and adds special bonus features such as music videos, documentary features, and other rare footage.

Most of the live songs showcased on the Live at Blenheim Palace DVD are taken from Cullum's breakthrough Verve/Universal debut recording, 'twentysomething'. Here he displays his trademark style, interpreting everything from standards such as "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "What a Difference a Day Made" to modern classics such as Radiohead's "High and Dry" and "Frontin'" by Pharrell Williams and The Neptunes. With equal panache, the self-taught musician presents original songs such as "These Are the Days" and "All at Sea."

Live at Blenheim Palace also includes a number of bonus extras. Cullum's videos for "All at Sea," "These Are the Days," and "Wind Cries Mary" are viewable here, as are a segment on the making of the "Wind Cries Mary" video, Jamie's performance of Radiohead's "High and Dry" at Glastonbury, film of Jamie busking on the streets of San Francisco, and a previously unseen performance of his UK rarity, "I Want to Be a Popstar" from The Southbank TV show.

Jamie Cullum's 'twentysomething' is fast approaching sales of two million copies worldwide and is certified Gold in Ireland, Norway, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand and double platinum in the UK.

Additionally, a new dual-disc version of 'twentysomething' will be released in the US on Tuesday, November 23, 2004. The new two-sided format will include the full version of 'twentysomething' on the audio side. A video DVD side will hold added content including album-based artwork, a photo gallery, biography, album credits, the

JAMIE CULLUM: WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES

It has been just a year since a 24 year old British singer, pianist, and songwriter Jamie Cullum played his first U.S shows at the Algonquin in New York, and what a year it's been. Marking what Downbeat called "the American debut of a major talent, a young man we will be hearing from for a long time," his album 'Twentysomething' has proven a hit with an unusually broad range of critics -- from four-star reviews in Mojo and People to the cover of Jazziz -- and has spent each of the past 27 weeks in the top 5 of Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Chart.

"A natural showman with the confidence of a bantam rooster" (NY Times), Cullum continues to win over fans in concert at an unprecedented rate, moving from showcases to sold-out-weeks-in-advance headlining slots at venues from Irving Plaza to the Fillmore, and notching the Newport Jazz Festival's one-day CD sales record after a headlining slot this summer. Cullum's success has extended to television as well, with performances on the Today Show, Letterman, Leno, Kilborn, Kimmel, and Austin City Limits.

Upcoming highlights for Cullum include his first ever DVD release (November 16) the debut of his second video -- a heartbreaking cover of Radiohead's "High And Dry" shot on a Brooklyn rooftop -- following up the success of the top 10 VH1 smash "All At Sea," plus a smattering of planned U.S. dates in November and December.

Have his album, it's real'good. Love jazz!